The Legacy Of “Legacy” Refugee Claims

Ever since it was created in 1989, the Immigration and Refugee Board and the refugee determination system that it administers has been a work in progress. Successive governments have tinkered with the system – reducing the number of Board Members hearing individual claims from two to one, designating so called safe countries, expediting straightforward claims and then cancelling the expedited program, etc. In December 2012 the rules of the game changed dramatically again with mandatory time frames requiring new refugee claims to be heard within sixty days. Claims made prior to December 2012 and not yet heard became known as “legacy” claims, as opposed to backlog claims, lest the government be accused of creating a new refugee backlog. The Harper government’s plan was to hear the remaining legacy claims until the legacy/backlog was cleared. However for the last couple of years legacy claims are simply not being scheduled. To date…